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On 2013-02-06 14:13 (GMT-0800) Linda Walsh composed:
Felix Miata wrote:
That must be one seriously wonderful old antique server. Doesn't it have a slot you could put a less antique video card in? Did you ever investigate doing a VBIOS upgrade?
I don't think it is possible -- it's onboard -- though I could be wrong.
The card: 0a:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Dell PowerEdge T610 MGA G200eW WPCM450
When I used the word "antique", I was assuming the G200 you have is equivalent to those with which I'm familiar. I found one upstairs with chip labeled G200a. Its copyright stencil is 1998. Dell or Matrox a decade or so later must have either resurrected the ancient chip and modernized it and its BIOS along with adding a new suffix, or reused the base model name with an entirely different chip. I'm guessing the upgrade. ...
Kernel driver in use: mgag200
I used to have Matrox cards that had the same limited compatibility with VESA and framebuffer as older Matrox cards. They were AGP G400s.
There is no x64-PCI-E nor AGP slot. There are PCI-E-x4 slots available (2 I think, and maybe (not sure if space allows a 64-bit PCI-X slot.
On a server not needing X, I'm unable to imagine how video speed could be an issue. Anything that fits in any slot you have and is supported by KMS should provide as much speed and function as anyone could use for BIOS or framebuffer text.
solved the problem with VBIOS upgrades, making them as framebuffer compatible as anything else I've ever used.
The card **IS** framebuffer compat (in 1280x768x32 OR 1280x1024x16 on a 1920x1200 included monitor (!).
!?!?!?!
lilo feeds it the appropriate VGA command line. I see the kernel boot until it hits "init"... then it flips into framebuff mode .. trying for: 128x48... which was about what it was... on a 1200 high screen, I said about 1/3, 384/1200 => .32, close for eyeballin' it. Um... I've see better... at 1024 wide, the closest it can do is maybe ... hmmm...I dunno. 640x480? -- 1280x768 won't fit.. neither will 1280x1024...
If it's not too much trouble to fit a gfxcard in a slot, I'd give it a try.
Even with *buntu's Grub 1.98, vga=791
I'm using vga = 0x30A -- I did a vga = ask and 0x30a was the best of the bunch...
As I can imagine. Using 0x30A on a G400 here I hit https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=259577 which is marked fixed but isn't. To get 0x30A's full 132x43 to stick all the way through the init process and on the vttys requires replacing CONSOLE_FONT="lat9w-16.psfu" with CONSOLE_FONT="lat9w-08.psfu" in /etc/sysconfig/console. Just to figure out what to put in that bug required what ended up being 20 months with kernel devs in https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7513 filed the year before. Some of what's in the kernel bug may be of use to you if you want to futz with framebuffer and/or BIOS modes on MGA any more.
I don't WANT to use a frame-buffer -- it's less readable and slower.
How can you tell BIOS modes are any faster or slower? Here all the BIOS modes on MGA and Intel seem slower than the framebuffer modes. To me all the smaller framebuffer fonts are superior to whatever psfu fonts openSUSE replaces the smaller BIOS fonts with. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org